Painting that was forgotten in beach house worth a fortune

CHRISTIE'S : ASSOCIATED PRESS
REDISCOVERY: The Derby Day was purchased by an American couple at a time when Victorian art was dismissed as garish.

LONDON - A long-lost Victorian painting that hung in a family's unlocked New England beach house for half a century could fetch $800,000 when it is sold next month, Christie's auction house said Tuesday.

The Derby Day is an early version of one of the era's most famous pictures - William Powell Frith's teeming, picaresque image of the crowds at an 1850s horse race, from a rich family in their carriage to gamblers, acrobats and prostitutes.

The finished painting hangs in the Tate Britain gallery in London. The 15-by-35 inch oil-on-canvas sketch being sold by Christie's is Frith's first complete version of the scene.

Peter Brown, Christie's director of Victorian pictures, said the rediscovery of the oil sketch was "immensely exciting."

It had been hanging in a modest New England beach house for decades before a friend of the owner suggested it might be worth something.

Christie's won't be more specific about the location because the owner wants to remain anonymous.

Brown said the vendor, who is in his 60s, believes his parents bought the painting some time before World War II, when Victorian art was often dismissed as garish and sentimental.

Since the 1970s, critical opinion has changed, and works by Victorian artists are coveted by collectors.